A look back at Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight one year later

SOUHTPORT, NC (WWAY) — It’s been a year since Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight (PTC Eight) moved into the Carolinas bringing extensive flooding in some parts of the Cape Fear.  

PTC Eight was classified by the National Hurricane Center on September 15th and moved inland on September 16th of 2024.

We visited one Brunswick County city where the abnormally heavy rain caused lots of problems. 

Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight never became organized enough to become a named storm but it’s one the Cape Fear will never forget.  

Nearly 20 inches of rain fell in Southport. Police Chief Todd Coring says it led to dozens of water rescues.  

“I think by the time we were all said and done there were a little over 38 to 40 water rescues that were completed by Southport Police and fire and some mutual aid agencies that we were able to all in to help us,” Coring recalled. 

Jessi Leonard with NC DOT said numerous roads were closed including NC-211, N.C. Highway 133, U.S. 17 and East Moore Street. 

“44 sites that we had to address in Brunswick County specifically that had damage that was more than just immediate repairs,” Leonard said. 

Repairs on the roads cost more than 9-million dollars. All roads have since re-opened.  

Due to the closures, Southport businesses, like Lantana’s Gallery, also took a hit. Owner Hilary Meehan said sales dropped sharply. 

“Sales were down over 40% for the first couple of weeks of that. People weren’t coming to or leaving town. It was huge,” Meehan remembered. 

With business down, Meehan had to find other ways to stay afloat. 

“I had to buckle down. I did reduce staff for a while. I worked solo. We started doing online free shipping, trying to promote other ways,” Meehan added. 

Pat Bittenbender works at Duck Duck Goose. She says their gift shop had flood damage.  

“Shops were closed, shops took a lot of damage coming in windows and coming down the roof. We had a lot of damage in our shop and so did a lot of others,” Bittenbender explained. 

Bittenbender says whether the storm was named or not made little difference.  

“For something that wasn’t going to be anything and just being called ‘cyclone eight’ it was worse than a lot of hurricanes,” Bittenbender said. 

PTC Eight also spawned two EF0 tornados in eastern North Carolina. 

One of them was a waterspout that moved onshore on the east side of Bald Head Island.